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Strambotto


Tinker

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Italian Verse

The Strambotto is thought to have influenced the development of the Sicilian Octave and the birth of the sonnet. The Strambotto is one of the earliest Italian verse forms and can be found in works from the 12th through the 19th centuries usually set to music. The name comes from the Occitan, estrabot which refers to sentimental and or amorous rhymes. Sources suggest the early Strambotto varied between 6 or 8 lines long however it was eventually recognized as an 8 line form holding fast to a strict 11 syllable line. Rhyme seems to be delineated by territory, Tuscan, Sicilian and Romano. The frame appears to be the same as the Ottavo Rima Stanza. However, the forms are quite different in that the Strombotto is limited to a single lyrical, octave while the Ottavo Rima is a narrative, stanzaic verse written with any number of octaves.
The elements of the Strambotto are:

  1. lyrical.
  2. an octastich, a poem in 8 lines. (When written in narrative stanzas it is better known as Ottava Rima)
  3. syllabic, strict hendecasyllabic lines. In English it has been found in iambic pentameter.
  4. rhymed, most often follows the Tuscan patterns of abababcc and occasionally aabbccdd and is sometimes called Strambotto Tuscano. The Sicilian Strambottos followed the rhyme pattern of abababab and the Strambotto Romagnuolo carries a rhyme scheme of ababccdd.

    Silence Circles My Being by Trewir Winktlet (Sicilian Strambotto)

~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~

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